Pig (Harvest Book) [Paperback]

Andrew Cowan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 1997 | Series: Harvest Book

In a “coming-of-age story as strange and surprising...as The Catcher in the Rye” (New York Times Book Review), a fifteen-year-old boy must learn to live on his own and contend with the vagaries of romantic love and racial hatred.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

First published in 1994 in England, where it won several awards, British writer Cowan's remarkable debut is a poignant coming-of-age-story set in a bleak English town. Narrator Danny, now 15, has always escaped his parents' arguments by visiting his beloved Scotland-born grandparents, Grandad and Gran, at their cottage on the edge of town. Grandad, whose left leg was amputated years ago, would recount colorful stories about raising pigs and working in a slaughterhouse. When Gran dies of a stroke, Grandad is forced to move out of the cottage they shared for 57 years and into a nursing home. Danny offers to care for their last pig, an aging sow Gran once saved from certain death. Despite his mother's objections, Danny begins making daily trips to the cottage, which is surrounded by debris from demolished homes and an old steelworks. An entertainment park called LeisureLand is planned for this site, including the cottage and its allotment. Danny falls in love with Surinder, a bookish Pakistani girl whose family is despised by bigoted villagers. The cottage becomes their secret hideaway, where Danny dreams about quitting school, getting a job and making a life for himself and Surinder at the cottage. His optimism?for their relationship, the pig and his Grandad?begins to fade by the summer's end, when he must make some difficult decisions. It's a simple tale, made moving and memorable by Cowan's beautifully restrained prose. Translation rights: Jennifer Kavanagh.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

In Cowan's dark novel, coming of age in northern England means relinquishing dreams and accepting a torpid reality of physical decay and social malaise. Pig opens with Danny's Gran's death and follows the teenager through a summer of love and desolation. When his one-legged Grandad is taken to a nursing home, Danny moves into his cottage on the site of an abandoned steel mill, now the town dump, and cares for their aging pig in the backyard sty. Between cooking slops for the pig and visiting Grandad in the home, Danny plays house with Surinder, his Indian girlfriend. When not in bed, the two explore the fetid countryside and dream of their own pig farm. Cowan deftly weaves together complex themes and adolescent innocence to produce a novel of surprising impact. Recommended for larger collections.?Paul E. Hutchison, Bellefonte, Pa.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (October 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 015600545X
• ISBN-13: 978-0156005456
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,252,677 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Deceptively simple, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Pig (Hardcover)

Cowan's "Pig" is, on the surface, a very simple tale of a boy who mourns the loss of his grandmother and takes care of her pig. Along the way, he gets involved with a Pakistani girl he goes to school with. However, "Pig" is so much more.

Danny is an outsider, as is Surinder. He is such a sad and lonely person, my heart broke time and time again for him. Just as my heart broke for Surinder. Just as my heart broke for Danny's grandfather. And just as my heart broke for the pig.

I highly recommend this novel. The writing is so simple it takes time to understand just what a complex human tale you are reading. However, once you begin to understand, this novel will haunt you long after you have finished.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written tale of young boy in rural England, August 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Pig (Hardcover)

You can feel the emotions of this young boy as he tells of his life after the death of his grandmother, whose pet pig he has decided to care for. He also takes the responsibility of visiting his infirm grandfather -- both are outsiders in their neighborhood and family except for one young Pakistani girl -- the only touch of sweetness in both their lives.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If Only there were space for FIVE additional STARS!!!!!!!, April 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Pig (Harvest Book) (Paperback)

By chance I happened to pick this book up at The Strand in NYC, along with Peter Hoeg's "Borderliners," and Russell Banks' "Rule of the Bone." Each alleged "coming of age" novels. Only Pig could offer the perfect mixture of endearment and believability while providing the insights of a 15 year old boy who struggles to embrace the natural course of maturity in a socially adolescent world. Readers might be deterred by the series of digressions that appear periodically, but read assured that each culminates into a singular understanding of the narrator's acceptance of personal responsibility and the nature of his environment. At the of the novel, I feel disappointed that I have no more opportunities to interact with the narrator